Everytime a wide stance squatter is filmed from the front they look high.USAPL guys squat close stance,the bar dips,their backs bend,but the hips stay hight.Then you get the experts on the internet saying "WOW THAT WAS DEEP".Ive seen it with Siders often,his hips are high JUST AS HIGH as you claim AJ was here.

This is why i quit judging meets and want nothing to do with equiped lifting anymore. it's a joke.

I used to have guys yelling at me because i wouldn't pass lifts like these. The judges need to wake the fuck up and it's not always the lifters fault but this is just fucking sad.

Good for you. It's nice to see someone moral.

It's too easy to blame it all on the judges, though. Yes, there are too many judges out there who just cheerlead. But lifters know full well which feds have any credibility regarding squat depth. The lifters keep returning to these feds, so they are just as culpable.

Everytime a wide stance squatter is filmed from the front they look high.USAPL guys squat close stance,the bar dips,their backs bend,but the hips stay hight.Then you get the experts on the internet saying "WOW THAT WAS DEEP".Ive seen it with Siders often,his hips are high JUST AS HIGH as you claim AJ was here.

Well, we'll just wait for the side vids from SPF meets to prove your point. Oh wait, they disallowed making those. They couldn't be more transparently lame if they tried.

Ever been to an SPF meet?NO!!!You havent.I just went to the Iron House,the judging was strict and consistant.The problem with this sport is that the people in it and around it DONT KNOW WHAT THE HELL THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT!!!!!!!!They see a clse stance squat with the guy bending at the waist and say "WOW HES DEEP" because the bar moves 7 inches.They NEVER bother to look at the guys hips.A wide stance squatter sits back not down,his bar movement is small,but his hips shoot back to depth.Again,Ive see Siders squats,they are all barely in or high,NOT ONE complaint for USAPL goofs.

Ever been to an SPF meet?NO!!!You havent.I just went to the Iron House,the judging was strict and consistant.The problem with this sport is that the people in it and around it DONT KNOW WHAT THE HELL THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT!!!!!!!!They see a clse stance squat with the guy bending at the waist and say "WOW HES DEEP" because the bar moves 7 inches.They NEVER bother to look at the guys hips.A wide stance squatter sits back not down,his bar movement is small,but his hips shoot back to depth.Again,Ive see Siders squats,they are all barely in or high,NOT ONE complaint for USAPL goofs.

No, I have never been to an SPF meet. They don't have those here in Europe, and I don't intend on spending a fortune in visiting the US just to support a bogus fed with homos who lift more by institutionalized cheating.

I do agree with you about the different dynamics of the squat. The bottom line is: both narrow and wide stance squats can only be properly judged from one place: the side, at knee level. I hope even you can see this. So any fed that BANS making vids from the side is fully aware they are trying to shit on the rest of PL. This fed's management is despicable, the judges that enable this are despicable, the lifters that keep returning to this farce are despicable.

SPF is a quality fed that up holds the fine traditions of Powerlifting, you haters.

You're right: my apologies go out to all SPF lifters. They just want to have a good time, where's the harm in that? The people who legitimately lifted real weight probably enjoy fakers coming along and "outlifting" them. My bad.

But seriously: I wouldn't have a problem with the SPF if they stopped calling what they did powerlifting. If they called it Extreme Lifting (as in: extremely shortened ROM) then nobody would care. But running a 100 yard dash with a 20 yard head start, and then claiming to be the best? Won't fly.

SPF is a quality fed that up holds the fine traditions of Powerlifting, you haters.

I train at Westside at know the guys who handled Hoff at the meet ,they swear there was nothing in the shirt.Now,the side judges were Russ Barlow and John Bott BOTH of whom were USPF national judges.Ken Wheeler was head judge another former USPF national judge.NONE of those three saw anything under the shirt.All three have either won or been in the tp three at nationals and have been lifting and competing for about thirty years.

Now,what are your qualifications?Barlow has pulled 825lbs in his career,Bott and Barlow have both squatted over 900lbs.Barlow was vice president of the APF and state chair for the USPF.Please give me your qualifications and do they match theirs?The answer is no.Louie Simmons says there was nothing under Hoffs shirt.

However,it makes no difference because in his next meet ,Hoff benched more then that and pulled his shirt off on the platform to prove there was nothing under it.

Billy, I understand what you are saying and I think i see your point, but in my opinion, its not even worth arguing like this. Sitting behind a computer gives way too much power to too many individuals who have no clue but who think they are experts. They want you to argue because it makes them feel good about themselves because in their world they are experts and they "showed you".

I'm an SPF member. You can also say I'm part of the "administration" of the SPF in a round about way. I was one of the biggest critics of the Hoff incident--I tore that video apart digitally and have watched it too many times to count. The only thing I can say is I'll be damned sure to watch him at every SPF meet I'm at where I know he's lifting. I know without a doubt I'm not the only lifter that is going to be doing that.

I also talked long and hard with Jesse and other federation higher ups about my opinion of what happened and what I thought of them rescending the initial suspension. The thing that is so often missed with these online arguments is what really happened and why the suspension was overturned. There was an incident that occured on the platform. The suspension was set initially to allow inquirery into what happened. There were 3 NATIONAL level judges from federations OTHER than the SPF who were on the platform for that meet. They said they did not see anything on the day of the meet. Because of that, the suspension that Hoff had had to be rescended.

We cannot turn this sport into one where judging is allowed by dweebs with keyboards days after a meet. That is one issue where a precident does not need to be set. The decision of the judges on the platform stands at the close of the meet. That was my understanding as to why Jesse rescended Hoff's suspension and everything that went with it. This was also a collective decision of the SPF board of directors, not just Jesse Rodgers. It had nothing to do with what Louie said. It had everything to do with setting a precedent for the sport that has dire implications and it had everything to do with giving way too much power to individuals sitting behind a keyboard miles away from the meet. We have three judges at a meet for a reason. People need to realize it. I don't agree with what happened based on how the video looks, but I cannot argue with the decision being made that the judges decision needs to be a final decision. No one said anything until that video came out. There were too many people at that meet to not have seen something if it did happen that way.

If you notice, none of those judges have done an SPF meet since then either. That says alot.

I have no qualifications aside from being a passive observer of the sport for years. I won't argue this, that, or the other, about the federations because it becomes a circular arguement where nothing is ever solved. One is welcome to view the judging standards of 20-30 years ago and decide on whether the sport is moving in the right direction. To each his own.

As to the Hoff video, I posted it because it was the easiest to find quickly and I found the kazoo music humorous. It was also one of the more interesting things to happen in that federation's short history. Most of the other SPF videos are easy enough to find online, people should go find them online and form their own opinion on them.

The whole "parallel" arguement is getting ridiculous. Guys are claiming they "can't" get to parallel because of flexiblity and having a suit on. Well, i think the biggest problem is they are using suits that are so tight they cannot get to parallel. When your suit is so tight that it takes 3 men with vice grips 10 mins to tug your suit off, you might want to quit using the old "human flexibility" excuse. I've squated in double ply suits and it's fucking retarded how tight they get when approaching parallel, the amount of pressure on your body at depth is truly insane and i can completely understand why these guys aren't hitting depth, but still these lifts above are a joke IMO.

Every fucking human on earth can squat to parallel, i've seen 6'6" guys do it.

I've watched judging and lifting in general take a total 180 degree turn from what it was in the 70's and 80's. Some people like the new style, but i am slipping away from powerlifting these days. I judged for years and never once saw anyone squat like this get white lights, it's just retarded at this point, but it's a sign of the times i guess.

As far as Hoff's press, you can't fool me, whatever was under that shirt was NOT natural, but who fucking knows. It just seems funny how this little bump shows up right where he had been getting stuck on his decent in the past few lifts...but whatever.

No smoke and mirrors should be allowed in this sport. This is not supposed to be a circus act, this is supposed to be a contest of "strength", but it's more of a leverage battle these days, which i guess is fine.

If i had my way, powerlifting would be like Olympic lifting, nothing but chalk, some wraps and a belt.

The whole "parallel" arguement is getting ridiculous. Guys are claiming they "can't" get to parallel because of flexiblity and having a suit on. Well, i think the biggest problem is they are using suits that are so tight they cannot get to parallel. When your suit is so tight that it takes 3 men with vice grips 10 mins to tug your suit off, you might want to quit using the old "human flexibility" excuse. I've squated in double ply suits and it's fucking retarded how tight they get when approaching parallel, the amount of pressure on your body at depth is truly insane and i can completely understand why these guys aren't hitting depth, but still these lifts above are a joke IMO.

Every fucking human on earth can squat to parallel, i've seen 6'6" guys do it.

I've watched judging and lifting in general take a total 180 degree turn from what it was in the 70's and 80's. Some people like the new style, but i am slipping away from powerlifting these days. I judged for years and never once saw anyone squat like this get white lights, it's just retarded at this point, but it's a sign of the times i guess.

As far as Hoff's press, you can't fool me, whatever was under that shirt was NOT natural, but who fucking knows. It just seems funny how this little bump shows up right where he had been getting stuck on his decent in the past few lifts...but whatever.

No smoke and mirrors should be allowed in this sport. This is not supposed to be a circus act, this is supposed to be a contest of "strength", but it's more of a leverage battle these days, which i guess is fine.

If i had my way, powerlifting would be like Olympic lifting, nothing but chalk, some wraps and a belt.

No offence to anyone, but the whole depth thing seems to be more of an American phenomenon. I rarely see squats passed if they are above parallel in Europe. Maybe it's just me though

No offence to anyone, but the whole depth thing seems to be more of an American phenomenon. I rarely see squats passed if they are above parallel in Europe. Maybe it's just me though

I have to agree. Sometimes I see e.g. the GPC being lambasted for high squats in US meets, yet the meets I've done with them in Europe was all according to the letter of the rule book: no requirement to go 3" below parallel, but you had to convincingly hit depth.

The whole "parallel" arguement is getting ridiculous. Guys are claiming they "can't" get to parallel because of flexiblity and having a suit on. Well, i think the biggest problem is they are using suits that are so tight they cannot get to parallel. When your suit is so tight that it takes 3 men with vice grips 10 mins to tug your suit off, you might want to quit using the old "human flexibility" excuse. I've squated in double ply suits and it's fucking retarded how tight they get when approaching parallel, the amount of pressure on your body at depth is truly insane and i can completely understand why these guys aren't hitting depth, but still these lifts above are a joke IMO.

Every fucking human on earth can squat to parallel, i've seen 6'6" guys do it.

I've watched judging and lifting in general take a total 180 degree turn from what it was in the 70's and 80's. Some people like the new style, but i am slipping away from powerlifting these days. I judged for years and never once saw anyone squat like this get white lights, it's just retarded at this point, but it's a sign of the times i guess.

As far as Hoff's press, you can't fool me, whatever was under that shirt was NOT natural, but who fucking knows. It just seems funny how this little bump shows up right where he had been getting stuck on his decent in the past few lifts...but whatever.

No smoke and mirrors should be allowed in this sport. This is not supposed to be a circus act, this is supposed to be a contest of "strength", but it's more of a leverage battle these days, which i guess is fine.

If i had my way, powerlifting would be like Olympic lifting, nothing but chalk, some wraps and a belt.

HOFF WENT TO THE NEXT MEET AND BENCHED 30LBS MORE AND REMOVED THE SHIRT ON THE PLATFORM TO PROVE HE HAD NOTHING UNDER IT.HE WILL GO OVER 900 THIS YEAR AND JUST HIT A 2750 TOTAL.